Oil refineries everywhere, but not a drop of gas to pump.
Hurricane Rita didn’t hit Galveston County as hard as initially feared, but it took a big bite out the supply of gasoline along the Texas Gulf Coast.
As thousands of county residents were looking for ways to return home Saturday, there was a desperate quest to find fuel for their vehicles.
There appeared to be none.
Local gas stations and convenience stores either had run out as the estimated 250,000 county residents fled their homes earlier in the week or shut down to get away from the storm — or both.
“Power and fuel — those are the two biggest things we need to get life back to normal,” said League City Mayor Jerry Shults. “If we don’t see those gas stations open up again — and I mean soon — this will hurt a whole lot more.”
Gasoline shortages had already become a major problem during the evacuation. The planned routes out of town were clogged beyond capacity, and more and more vehicles ran out of fuel as people attempted to flee the storm.
State and local planners had counted on many of the gasoline stations — particularly along the major portions of the evacuation routes — to remain open through the initial stages of the evacuation and have enough fuel to keep the cars moving.
But storeowners themselves were taking the evacuation orders seriously.
Drivers resorted to pushing their vehicles, pulling off the road and hoping help would come.
Bacliff resident Calvin Gregory siphoned the fuel from abandoned cars left on the side of the highway.
“I’m sorry I had to do that,” he said. “I don’t think it was stealing. We just needed to get out of (the traffic) and come home.”
But now as the storm threat has past, finding a tank of gasoline is nearly impossible.
“I wish I could find the number to the one person who knows everything about gasoline,” Shults said. “That person does not exist.”
Valero, which owns a refinery in Texas City and Diamond Shamrock and Valero store locations across the country, announced it was getting ready to restart its refinery.
The company ordered a total shutdown of the refinery based on the threat Rita.
Spokeswoman Mary Rose Brown said the oil must first be refined.
“Our recovery teams for Texas City and Houston are in place,” Brown said. “They are beginning the process to re-establish utilities.
“We are encouraging all of our refining and retail employees who can safely return to work to do so.”
Just when state officials would deliver fuel to the Galveston County area was unclear Saturday.
“The focus on a statewide basis is to support East Texas in their devastation, which is continuing to occur as we speak,” said state Rep. Craig Eiland, who represents Galveston.
Jefferson, Chambers and Orange counties took the brunt of damage when Hurricane Rita, a Category 3, made landfall near the mouth of the Sabine River.
“Thousands of evacuees from Beaumont, Orange and Port Arthur are in shelters, and we’re trying to move food and water to them in the short term,” said Eiland, who spoke to state officials on a conference call Saturday morning.
Eiland urged Galveston County residents who traveled hundreds of miles away to stay in their places of refuge until they were guaranteed access to fuel. Meanwhile, Eiland said state officials would have to begin the complicated task of reuniting thousands of drivers with their vehicles left along Texas highways.
Some cars overheated or ran out of gas during last week’s historic evacuation that saw millions of Texans flee from the storm.
